Sen. Eliza­beth War­ren, D-Mass., on Tues­day in­voked her own state’s ex­per­i­ence with health re­form as evid­ence that there is still time for Obama­care im­ple­ment­a­tion to suc­ceed.

“What I can tell you all from [the Mas­sachu­setts] ex­per­i­ence is that get­ting every­one in­to the health care sys­tem wasn’t easy and it wasn’t quick,” the sen­at­or said in a Sen­ate Health, Edu­ca­tion, Labor, and Pen­sions Com­mit­tee hear­ing Tues­day on the troubled rol­lout of Health­Care.gov. The com­mit­tee is hear­ing testi­mony from Cen­ters for Medi­care and Medi­caid Ser­vices Ad­min­is­trat­or Mar­ilyn Taven­ner on the status of im­prove­ments to the web­site.

Pres­id­ent Obama spoke in Bo­ston last week about the suc­cess of health care re­form in Mas­sachu­setts un­der Mitt Rom­ney’s gov­ernor­ship. The Af­ford­able Care Act has been com­pared to the state’s sys­tem on a lar­ger scale.

“Our en­roll­ment peri­od for sub­sid­ized in­sur­ance las­ted al­most a full year, yet it was only in the last month that 20 per­cent of the total pool got them­selves en­rolled,” War­ren said. “We learned in Mas­sachu­setts that when it comes to en­rolling in health care, many wait un­til the end to get it done.”

Taven­ner agreed, say­ing that the ad­min­is­tra­tion al­ways ex­pec­ted the greatest en­roll­ment surges to come in mid-Decem­ber and at the end of Feb­ru­ary. Those who more des­per­ately need in­sur­ance are ex­pec­ted to be part of the Decem­ber wave to get cov­er­age be­gin­ning Jan. 1. Young­er, health­i­er in­di­vidu­als — the group cru­cial to keep­ing over­all premi­um rates low — are ex­pec­ted to en­roll close to the March 31 dead­line, to avoid the in­di­vidu­al-man­date pen­alty.

“It’s im­port­ant to get the prob­lems fixed in Novem­ber,” Taven­ner said. “But yes, I think we have time.”

War­ren em­phas­ized the im­port­ance of look­ing at the big­ger pic­ture in im­ple­ment­a­tion. “The ex­per­i­ence in Mas­sachu­setts sug­gests it might be prudent for us to take a deep breath about this,” she said.

COR­REC­TION: This art­icle pre­vi­ously quoted Sen. War­ren as say­ing 25 per­cent of the Mas­sachu­setts pool en­rolled in the last month of the en­roll­ment peri­od. She ac­tu­ally said 20 per­cent.

"Chuck Rosenberg, the acting head of the Drug Enforcement Agency who has found himself and his agency at odds with the Trump administration in recent months, told staff members Tuesday that he is planning to step down from his post." The Obama administration holdover will step down on October 1.

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HAD BEGUN TO PUBLICLY CRITICIZE TRUMP

Sen. Corker to Retire

1 hours ago

THE DETAILS

Another Republican member of Congress is showing himself out the door. After much thought, consideration and family discussion over the past year, Elizabeth and I have decided that I will leave the United States Senate when my term expires at the end of 2018,” said Sen. Bob Corker in a statement. The Tennessean has served since 2006.

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NOT ILLEGAL, BUT MUST BE FORWARDED TO WORK ACCOUNTS

At Least 6 WH Advisors Used Private Email Accounts

1 hours ago

THE LATEST

Jared Kushner, Stephen Bannon, Reince Priebus, Gary Cohn, Stephen Miller, and Ivanka Trump sent or received some emails on personal accounts that related to White House business. "Officials are supposed to use government emails for their official duties so their conversations are available to the public and those conducting oversight. But it is not illegal for White House officials to use private email accounts as long as they forward work-related messages to their work accounts so they can be preserved."

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SAYS CONTACTS WERE “BENIGN”

Stone Releases Correspondence with Guccifer 2.0

1 hours ago

THE LATEST

"Roger Stone, a longtime friend and adviser to Donald Trump, released correspondence Tuesday" with the online hacker known as Guccifer 2.0 , which "U.S. intelligence agencies said was used by Russian government-linked entities to distribute embarrassing information about Democrats during the 2016 election. The disclosures came in a 47-page opening statement made available to reporters in advance of Mr. Stone’s Tuesday appearance in front of the House Intelligence Committee." Stone called his contacts with Guccifer "limited" and "benign."

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PRIEBUS, SPICER, HICKS, MCGAHAN

Mueller Could Start Interviewing White House Figures This Week

1 hours ago

THE LATEST

"Special counsel investigators could start interviewing current and former White House staff as soon as later this week regarding the Russian probe, two sources familiar with the matter tell CNN. One source cautioned it is still being worked out with Robert Mueller's office and said it might be delayed until next week." Among those who could have a sit-down with the special prosecutor: former chief of staff Reince Priebus, former press secretary Sean Spicer, communications director Hope Hicks, White House counsel Don McGahn, communications adviser Josh Raffel and associate counsel James Burnham.